The Social Dilemma, released by Netflix in January 2020, has taken the world by storm, exposing the questionable motives behind big tech companies. The creators of the movie interviewed former employees of these companies and also provided a fictional narrative to lay out a “real life” story that viewers can relate to better. As said in the movie, “If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.” This has proven to be very true, as social media sites sell “us,” or our attention, to advertisers. Because we are the source of their income, these companies will do anything to keep us scrolling and, therefore, show us more ads. To do this, they track just about everything we do. That’s right: what we see on our screens, our search history, how long we look at things, who we follow, the people we stalk on Instagram. Everything. With this information, they create an algorithm specific to each user that keeps providing content we may find interesting. They want to ensure that you continue to see images and videos on their site that you’ll engage with. The Social Dilemma even claims that social media may know more about us than ourselves. It’s scary to think that an app or a website can manipulate us so much that it predicts our next move even better than we can. They send us notifications relentlessly to bring us back time and time again, all for monetary gain. These companies started with a benevolent goal, but now, they don’t care about the detrimental effects they are having on human life.

This documentary also examines the impacts social media has had on humans, especially Gen Z. This generation is especially affected because they never knew what life was like before social media. How can you know you’re in the Matrix if that’s all you’ve ever experienced? Among this age group, self harm and suicide has increased exponentially since the introduction of social media in the late 2000s. Their self esteem has been lowered significantly by seeing people to compare themselves to every day on a screen, sometimes people who edit themselves to unattainable standards. Another con of tech is the crutch it can provide in awkward social situations. How often do you grab your phone when you feel uncomfortable or bored? People are getting increasingly worse at handling unpleasant circumstances because of their phones.

After watching this movie, I have been convinced of how social media has affected my life negatively. Since watching, I’ve made an effort to turn off the notifications for most of my apps so that I don’t mindlessly get on them without a real purpose. I also deleted some apps that I didn’t use much or made me feel like I was wasting time. I highly recommend everyone watch this film and examine their use of social media. You might be surprised by how much better you’ll feel without it.